IT Insights

When we asked ChatGPT to write me an intro for this interview it suggested the following: “Over the past few years, generative AI has emerged as a powerful tool for businesses to automate various tasks and gain a competitive edge. In the insurance industry, generative AI is being used to streamline operations, reduce costs, and enhance customer experience. From underwriting to claims processing, generative AI is transforming the insurance landscape.” It is indeed a fine example of self-promotion, but does it truly reflect reality? My guests are Danilo Raponi, Group Head of Innovation and Emanuele Colonnella, Innovation Activation Manager at Generali and we are discussing the state of generative AI in Insurance, but not only.

Recent statistics from Price Waterhouse Coopers say that 41% of insurance customers are likely to switch insurance providers due to dissatisfaction with their carrier’s digital capabilities. It has posed a challenge to the insurance sector on how to make customers loyal and how to improve their digital experience with claims. Our guest offers a new approach to that problem and believes that the processes insurers use haven’t adapted to the capabilities of the new technology implemented by the carriers.

In this episode I had a pleasure to talk to Carrie Goetz, fractional CTO to multiple companies, recently named in the top Top 25 Women in Mission Critical, 30 Top Most Influential Women in Tech 2021 by CIO Outlook, 10 most influential women in technology 2020 by Analytics Insight, honored as a Network Computing Inspiration Award finalist 2020, and Comptia Women in Leadership Spotlight Finalist. Together we discussed various aspects of data: ROI from data and Cloud projects, future data center, security issues with data and their awareness, and many more.

In this episode of IT Insights we host Ed Morrison, a co-author of the book "Strategic Doing - Ten Skills for Agile Leadership", a #1 Amazon New Release in 6 categories. For over 25 years Ed has been developing new, network-based models for strategy in open, loosely connected networks. These approaches emphasize the strategic value of focused collaboration and innovation in today's global economy. Ed speaks about his approach to teaching the rules and skills of good collaboration to senior managers and PMs, and he explains how his methods differ from the ones most of us use. In the episode we discuss the advantages of implementing Strategic Doing in companies, its influence on the level of partnership and on the management community in businesses, and Ed's perspective on the future of collaboration and leadership.

Our guest of this IT Insights episode is George Amanatiadis, VP of Sales and Customer Success at Scrive. The episode touches upon various aspects of customer onboarding and CX. We also discuss why culture of an organisation is crucial when building technology and what challenges George is facing when working on solution architecture of various IT environments. Last but not least we also talked about eSigning contributing to digital transformation of organisations.

The guest of this 5 questions episode is Jukka Holm, Managing Director of Visma Enterprise Oy and Board Chair of Visma Public Oy, Invian Oy, Oima Oy, and SmartTrackers in Netherlands. He also holds a Board Member role in Visma Enterprise Latvia and Acubiz in Denmark. In this episode we discuss the transition process from MD to Board Member as well as Jukka’s approach to implementing strategic changes in companies.

Meet Jack Nikogosian, a leading specialist in WEB3 and a renowned Danish blockchain expert with a deep understanding of the cryptocurrency industry. In 2015, Nikogosian garnered international attention when he paid for an entire month of expenses using only Bitcoin, earning him the nickname "Bitcoin Jack." In 2017, Nikogosian founded ARYZE, a fintech company that aims to make payments faster, cheaper, and smarter. Under Nikogosian's leadership, ARYZE has won multiple awards and has been recognized as a top talent in Denmark and on Forbes' 30 under 30 list. As a sought-after speaker on the topic of crypto-currencies, Nikogosian continues to be a prominent figure in the DeFi space. In this episode we discuss Jack’s experience of paying solely with Bitcoin for an entire month as well as the challenges he faces when spreading the gospel of tokenisation.

Our guest of this IT Insights 5 questions episode is Dr. Jacqui Taylor, CEO and Founder at FlyingBinary Ltd. She is recognised as one of the 15 Most Influential Woman in UK Technology, 21 Most Inspiring Women in Cyber, 100 Global Leaders, an Expert Advisor to the European Commission and in the United Nations 2030 plan. Jacqui has shared the advice she would give to someone at the very beginning of their journey with DeepTech as well as the challenges she faces when implementing innovative technology. She had also introduced the initiative called Empathy Economy, which has already welcomed over 100 million entrepreneurs from 172 countries. It has taught them how to be CyberSafe in an online world. Empathy Economy is working to launch a unique EE membership where Jacqui will share her success plan to support 1 million entrepreneurs or changemakers to create businesses to deliver the change the world needs to see across the world and she would love you to join her. If you want to grow or start a business that changes people's lives the waitlist for the next cohort of Empathy Economy businesses is open, and you can join it at https://jacqui.online/waitlist To get access to the WEF research we used to help 10 million businesses Cybersafe go to https://wef.jacqui.online. To stay updated follow Jacqui Taylor’s LinkedIn profile where she shares updates on her global work: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jacqui-taylor/

Our guest is Herman Herteleer, Group CIO of Interparking. He has vast experience in setting up and working with agile responsive organizations that continuously change and adapt to market needs mainly in the customer services and supply industry. Together we discuss what is digital transformation about and if it really is "more about culture and people, than technology". We also touch upon choosing the right partner to go through it and introduce the notion of rightshoring. Last but not least, we talk about the biggest challenges of building a high-performing team.

The guest of this episode is Tiffany Haynes, COO & Chief People Officer at Fingercheck. Prior to FC, Tiffany was with Jack Henry (NASDAQ: JKHY) for nearly 20 years; much of that time was devoted to fintech operations, program management, people operations, and leading consumer-facing experiences. She served in various roles, including Chief People Officer (6500+ employees) and as General Manager | Vice President of Consumer-Facing Experiences with full P&L responsibilities. In this episode we will focus on Tiffany’s passion, namely putting people first and enabling small businesses with feature-rich solutions that are simple and powerful, so the business owner can spend more time in the business and less time running the business.

Our guest of this episode is Dr. Dean Bartles, a seasoned operations professional with four decades of management experience in manufacturing and technology. He is currently the President and CEO of the Manufacturing Technology Deployment Group, Inc., a not-for-profit holding company of both the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) and Advanced Manufacturing International, Inc. (AMI), a new subsidiary and sister company to NCDMM. Dr. Bartles’ skills in advanced manufacturing technology areas include Digital Manufacturing, Model Based Enterprise, Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing, advanced robotics and brilliant factory concepts. In our episode we discuss industry 4.0, optimization and control of processes, automatization and gathering data and how the companies can benefit from them. We will also talk about the place of AI and ML in manufacturing and how to prepare a manufacturing business for digital transformation.

Our guest is Antony Bream, the Founder and Managing Director at ribbit Consulting, mentor and member of numerous advising boards. Antony has over 30 years of experience in B2B sales for cloud applications primarily into the financial services marketplace. His focus is always clear on pivoting strategy quickly to realise ever changing market trends and building complimentary partner networks to accelerate revenue growth from channel with a joint value proposition. In this episode, we discuss which industries might be more interested in engaging an external advisor and why companies seek such services. We also talk about how to collaborate with the advisor or technology consultant to ensure the highest value of this partnership and analyse how to choose the right partner.

This time we had a pleasure to talk to Ian Max Ewart. Ian is a C-suite Commercial Executive, Director, Board Member and an Advisor, with a 30+ year career in international financial services. Ian is known as an industry leader and reference for marketing, business development and innovation. In this episode we talk about place for humanity in the AI projects. We discuss the most important aspects companies focus on nowadays, how financial organisations can provide human, personal experience as well as if AI can be a tool in creating applications and solutions that improve the inclusiveness. At the end our guest shares his most recent project which he has been working on.

For the first time, we present a new format - 5 questions. Our guest is Jakub Nalepa, Head of Artificial Intelligence department at KP Labs, Associate Professor at Silesian University of Technology, and Machine Learning Architect at Graylight Imaging Jakub answers Ewa's 5 insightful questions. - what encouraged him to choose his career path - what he has learned from his mistakes in the past - what advice he would give to his younger self - what benefits and opportunities data and its analysis have to offer - what are the advantages of peer review in the world of science and business.

In this talk we delve into the challenges and traps of building tech teams in different companies. We discuss what key tech competences are required in the financial industry today as well as which sourcing strategies actually work. Last but not least, we talk about choosing the right IT partner and share tips on building a tech team. Our guest is Georgina Owens, CTO at Liberis, Top UK CIO 100 2019 and 2020, UK Top 50 Most Influential Women in Tech 2020 and 2021 and Women in IT Awards nominee and winner.

Many of us remember the days of unintuitive software interfaces and the ‘where do I click’ questions in our heads. Thankfully, with the rise of the human-centric software design, the unintuitive apps are no longer the industry standard. However, there are still many companies that need to consider their users more. In this episode, Michał talks to Martyna and Daniel, two user experience designers. They discuss the question of how to design user-centred software products – both for designing new software and releasing updates to existing apps. They also present a 7-question survey which will show you recommended activities to create user-centred software.

In less than 20 years, the ESG movement has grown from a corporate social responsibility initiative launched by the United Nations into a global phenomenon whose assets are set to balloon to $50 trillion by 2025 from about $35 trillion, according to estimates from Bloomberg Intelligence. Being the topic of numerous discussions and having impact on future enterprise value proves it to be crucial in operating business. However, ESG stands for environmental, social, and corporate governance, hence we want to leverage our focus on one of those aspects, namely social. Together with my guest, Therese Baptiste Cornelis, an Advisory Board Member at AKFI Actionable Knowledge Foundational Institute as well as a consultant for organizations in key issues of Digital Transformation, we will discuss the role of ESG in organisations, especially focusing on the social inclusion aspect.

Our guest is Payal Arora, a co-founder of FemLab.Co and a Professor and Chair in Technology, Values and Global Media Cultures at Erasmus University Rotterdam; authoress of several books including the award-winning “The Next Billion Users” with Harvard Press. Her expertise lies in inclusive design and user experiences among low-income communities worldwide. In the podcast we discuss the aspects of human-centrism and the cultural context of technology. We also unveil the notion of digital anthropologist as well as the connection between creative design in technology and human centred solutions.

People tend to focus on boosting their self-confidence or improving self-esteem, but many don’t realise that it is the self-worth which is the fuel we should run on. Experiencing difficulties in career or personal lives in never easy and it is crucial to be able to rely on our self-worth. In this talk with John Niland, the author of “The Self-Worth Safari”, "Hidden Value", "100 Tips to Find Time", "Opportunity Conversations”, and "The Courage to Ask”, as well as speaker and coach at Self-Worth Academy, we explore the differences between self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth and elaborate on the importance of the later in career growth and development. We will also delve into the origin of the idea of self-worth and why it is more important now than ever.

Recent years have been unprecedented in terms of new unexpected challenges and changes in our work. The pandemics has impacted teams in many ways and has required us to rethink the leadership models to allow the teams stay effective, efficient and high performing. Together with our guest Kevin Mascarenhas, leadership coach to tech startup CEOs, we have touched upon the topic of leadership and high performance teams on various levels. We discuss the concept of transformational leadership as well as, on one hand, key factors required to build and maintain the high performance teams and, on the other hand, the blockers and obstacles to overcome on the way. Furthermore, we have talked about the impact of hybrid work on our attitude towards life and work in general and the fact that it is impossible to return to the pre-pandemic working environment. We also discussed the significance of aligning roles and responsibilities at a company to business goals of the organisation and how to approach it.